Christmas Morning Service 2009

I felt like I needed to add this one last post to our Chrismtas 2009 as I close this blog until next year.

Every year since our kids were small - Youngest was about 2 and the oldest about 10 - we started doing a Christmas morning service project. Our kids were getting to caught up in the wrong meaning of Christmas. We decided the best thing we could in addition to the other service we did was to focus on someone else on Chrismtas morning. After the service is completed, then we come back and open presents. It has been one of the best things ever!


One year we took pamper packages to all the single ladies in our ward area. One year we went and shoveled all the elderly's driveway's in our ward area. One year we made candy wreaths and delivered them to people who needed a lift. Another year we delivered something for breakfast. Last year it was blizzarding, we shoveled several driveways of people in our are who had been ill. Every year we think about it and decide on a service. The picture is from this year. This year we presented filled up stockings and delivered them on the doors of a retirement home. We had to be really quiet because these people can hear everything!


This is pretty early in the morning sometimes so we have to be quiet. A couple of times we slept in a bit so we had to be really sneaky. We all have such a great time and laughing is a big part of our activity, but he have never been caught yet - close but not yet.


I felt I needed to share this with you, maybe it can help someone else's family who needs a boost. It was such a great thing to teach our kids and as they have grown older and we have added more to our family, it is a great bonding experience.

See you next fall - I am already excited about some of the projects I have planned.

Closing Down for 2009 - See you in early September 2010

It is time to say good bye for another Christmas season.

This year was a little hectic because of sickness at our house. I didn't get everything done like I had planned and my blog showed that - I am sorry!

I already have plans for Christmas 2010 and I am excited to share that with you early next fall.

For now here is a note I sent someone who asked me about my storage system for my Christmas decorations:

I took a class that suggested having an inventory of your Christmas things so when you are planning etc you know what you have.
So after a lot f thought I figured out one that works for me.
When I put things away last year I incorporated it and this is the year I am seeing the results.
This is how I did it - you can take from it what works for you.

I have about 20 tree's so I have containers for those tree's.
They are assigned a nuimber
1 - White tree
2 - Woodland Tree
3 - Peppermint Tree etc.

Then each room was given a number
100 - Living Room
200 - Kitchen
300 - Dining etc
Some of those rooms have more boxes so I added 01, 02, 03 etc to the number
101, 102, 103 etc.
I know that every 100 numbered box is for the living room.

When I started decorating I pulled out the 700 numbers because those are for the master bedroom and left all the other containers alone....it was amazing!

The reason I went with the "100's" system is it allows me to add containers for each room if needs be. I started out just numbering them and for example I had a box 9 for the living room and when I added soemthing number 21 would also be for the living room and it was still pretty chaotic.

I also have a main list on the computer and made a copy to put in my my Notebook.
It sounds like a bit of work, but it is so worth it!

Have a great year! I will see you in about September of 2010!
Paula